Danelectro D-2 Fab Overdrive Effects Pedal

March 30, 2015

History was made in 1975 when a mom and pop store in California commissioned the production of just 200 of what is perhaps the best overdrive effect ever. Unlike any other device, that pedal authentically simulated the breakup that occurs when a tube amp is run at full volume. You will occasionally see an original in the stage rig of a major artist. If you could find an original offered for sale, best to sit down before inquiring about the price. Danelectro puts this classic effect in your hands…without damage to your financial portfolio.

Depending on the amp and guitar you have, this pedal is going to either really be great or be a bummer. It sounds terrific with my fender strat (single coil) Danelectro (lipstick pickups) on my solid state amps, giving them a warm tube like overdrive.It sounds terrible on my tube amp and my vintage silvertone amp, it really sounds aweful with my 1980’s Kramer, loaded with humbucker pickups.You’ll either love it or hate it! That will decide mostly on the type of guitar and amp you use, it’s a different pedal with every combination.

I purchased this little unit simply for that added punch every so often on my ACOUSTIC guitar (that’s right!) I play in a prasie band at my church and most songs require the acoustic strumming. However, every so often i need that extra push , either for a solo or a rhythm part and this pedal sounds GREAT!! I tried it on my electric too , of course, and it goes from warm blues to almost SHRED!! Buy it!!!

Yes, this pedal is plastic, the switch is not the most durable feeling, and the knob placement is annoying. At less than , you need to be able to look past these things. I’ve had a higher failure rate with the Dunlop Cry Baby and that thing is built like a cinder block. This pedal actually sounds pretty good when used as intended. Which is to say, this pedal does a nice job in overdriving the preamp tubes in your valve amplifier. No brutalz here unless you already have a good amount of gain going. No overdrive pedal lives up to it’s potential running into a solid state (even modeling) amplifier. It’s just not what they are really intended to do and they end up sounding buzzy. Some have complained about RF interference with the use of the FAB pedals (getting radio signals through your amp). I have had that happen with pedals costing 5x the price of the FAB- particularly when running a long pedal chain. Based on tone alone, this pedal can overdrive your tube preamp as well as most anything out there under 0. Check out the YouTube review of this pedal by a guy that goes by ‘intheblues’. I believe he uses a DRRI with a strat, and this pedal sounds GREAT. If you did a blind test between this pedal and an overdrive costing north of 0 you may be surprised- particularly if your other gear (amp and guitar) are halfway decent. What I did note though, was that this pedal has a wee bit more gain and a little less treble than my other TS type pedals. That doesn’t make it worse or better- just different. The ‘mid-hump’ is actually less pronounced than in a tubescreamer, which is a good thing IMHO. There are already enough tubescreamer clones on the market! It will not perform miracles on lousy sounding guitars and amplifiers. Incidentally, the pedal plays well with other dirt boxes. Since it isn’t true bypass, you will likely get some tone suck if you run a bunch of these in your chain, but if the rest of your pedals have decent bypass you will be fine. Lest you mistake me for a novice fanboy with no point of reference for my review- I’ve been playing guitar since 1979 and have used ‘vintage’ dirt boxes since before they were vintage and overpriced. I am years past caring about the brand and all about getting good sounds from simple gear. YMMV-

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